


I'll Be Home For Christmas

by BadHidingSpot



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Christmas, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 13:59:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8847772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadHidingSpot/pseuds/BadHidingSpot
Summary: sequel to "All I Want For Christmas"





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [steamcurious](https://archiveofourown.org/users/steamcurious/gifts).



I’ll Be Home For Christmas  
December 2nd  
Leaving had been a good decision. Derek had told himself this everyday since he’d taken off from Beacon Hills in the late night. He’d told Scott, of course, and had to hug him for a very long time. Scott was a hugger. Derek remembered his dad had been that way too: full of affection and bursting with it. He cared so much and so did Scott. Scott was so full of love and hope it was no wonder Derek often thought about his father when Scott was around.  
He’d told Malia too but she wasn’t one for long weeping goodbyes, like Scott, and Derek liked this about her. She was so much like Cora that it endeared her to him but also she was much like Kate and this forced him to keep a distance. At least she was nothing like Peter. He gave her a number to reach him at and when she vowed not to give it away he trusted her. Maybe promises meant more to her than other people. Maybe she’d made a promise to her little sister and mother, something she felt she’d broken the night of the accident, and now promises were precious.  
“Just in case,” Derek had said, “if there are any Hale related problems.” Derek didn’t like the thought of them all going to Peter for problems. Deaton could only do so much. Malia had crumbled it into her fist and stuffed it into her pocket. They shook hands. She didn’t feel like his cousin at all. He remembered having baby cousins, before the fire. Toddling around and cooing up at him to “do the airplane” which was just Derek lifting and spinning the chubby babies while making plane noises. He figured Malia would not appreciate it if he did this now during their goodbye but part of him was very amused with the thought of it. What would she do? Probably squirm in confusion and demand to be put down.  
Malia had taken the “just in case” to heart, evidently, because she rarely wrote to him. Only quick and to the point messages and nothing more informative than “every one is alive” and “Scott is still leader”. Those weren’t exactly the kind of updates he’d been wanting but he was glad for them all the same. Besides, he’d reasoned, it was best that he not stay too informed. He needed to clear his mind of all that. Derek had been equally curt in his own updates and responses: “still alive”, “bought motorcycle” , “hate motorcycle”, “sold motor cycle,” and “bought new camero”. When Malia wrote him “no longer mating with Stiles” Derek wasn’t sure how to respond. He wrote several messages to Malia and a few to Stiles (whose number he still had memorized despite his better judgement) to try and think of the best way to comfort either of them. “That’s rough”, “need to talk?”, “sorry about what happened”, “the first one is tough”. He deleted them all without sending.  
It was late December when Malia texted him something out of the ordinary. “What do I get Stiles for xmas?”. Derek had so many ideas because he himself had been hyper focused on what to get Stiles and every time he saw something he bought it and put it on a shelf in his room. It was filling up now with small things. Derek thought for a moment that maybe he might send Malia one or two of them and she could say it was from her. The idea of that filled him with an unreasonable rage, pretty much the only rage that Derek was capable of, and he squashed that idea before it could turn into something ugly inside of him.  
“What do you know that he likes?”  
Long minutes passed. Malia was still struggling with texting. “Being little spoon.”  
“Things he likes. Not actions.”  
“Comics. Star Wars. He owns everything for everything he likes.”  
“You have to get people things they like that they wouldn’t think of themselves.”  
“That’s stupid.”  
“I know.”  
There was almost an hour of pausing and Derek figured the conversation was over. But then his phone pinged eight times in rapid succession.  
“He’s lonely. I can smell that. It’s not so bad with Scott and Lydia around. It’s even okay when I’m there. But he’s got this overbearing scent of loneliness that I can’t tie to anything. He misses someone. I think he misses his mom maybe. Should I get him something that reminds him of his mother? Or is that weird? It might make him more sad. I hate thinking of my mother. I’d rather have her back. Memories hurt.” Derek understood the feeling. “But his mother has been dead for a long time. Maybe it’s not her. This smells so recent. He didn’t smell like this when I first met him. It’s so annoying. It was like this during sex too.” Derek could have lived his whole life without that information. “And he’s worried all the time. He runs his hand through his hair and drinks four Monsters a day. I want to fix it.”  
Derek had to think very carefully about his response. “Maybe it’s because you two broke up?”  
Her reply was quick. “No”  
“It’s not impossible.”  
“Aliens aren’t impossible. Doesn’t mean they built the pyramids.”  
“You’ve been studying.”  
“History Channel is much easier than reading.”  
“You should try Discovery Channel. Less World War II more other parts of history.”  
“This is the longest I’ve ever texted anyone.”  
Derek paused a long time after that too. Smiling he typed “cousins are great”  
“I think everyone wishes you were here”  
Maybe in some way Malia was trying to say that she was part of every one. Or maybe she was trying to tell Derek Stiles was part of every one. Or maybe, since Malia was more about talking strait than speaking in code she actually meant everyone as in everyone.  
It was a few days later when she texted him again and he hadn’t been too far away from Beacon Hills. He was only a few hours. Normally he was far away, or at least trying to be. He wanted to be moving but his car was filling up with gifts for Stiles and Henley’s that he knew he should settle somewhere soon. But he didn't’ want to settle right then. Not this time of year. He should go somewhere warm. Somewhere far and without snow. Somewhere where he wouldn’t see children playing and want to curl up and die. But then he didn’t want to be too far. What if someone needed him in Beacon Hills?  
And there it was. Because he didn’t worry about Cora in South America needing him but instead all of the remnants of pack (ripped apart and sewn together with new and foreign pieces) and more specifically one piece.  
“Come home” Malia wrote simply.  
“Emergency?” But Derek was already driving towards the gas station and mapping out his route in his head to Beacon Hills. If it was an emergency or not seemed irrelevant.  
“No. Come anyway.”  
He put his foot on the accelerator and was crossing Beacon Hills city line before he realized it. He was speeding and didn’t realize it until he saw flashing lights behind him and he had to pull over. He took out his license and registration trying not to look as anxious as he felt. Maybe he could try smiling. A smile might make him look like less of a criminal.  
It was, of course because Beacon Hills was so small and their police force was dwindling, Sheriff Stilinski himself. Derek winced.  
“Derek Hale?” Sheriff said taking his sunglasses off. He looked like that warden from Cool Hand Luke. Was that guy a Warden? No, the Warden hadn’t worn glasses. Who was that guy? Just a cop? Security guard?  
“Sheriff,” Derek grunted.   
“I thought you left town?”  
“I did. I’m back.”  
“Clearly.”  
“What I mean is,” Derek went on realizing he was being very rude to a man who had not arrested him as many times as he had to, “I’m home for the holidays.”  
“Does Stiles know?”  
Derek cocked his head. “I haven’t told anyone really.” He hadn’t even texted Malia back to confirm with her that he was coming.  
“Well you’re going to see him, aren’t you?”  
“I hadn’t thought about it,” Derek said meekly. Sheriff put his hands on the car door and leaned down. He could be intimidating when he wanted. That must have been a trait required of the Sheriff.  
“You left without saying good bye,” The Sheriff said almost darkly, “and now you’re coming home and you think that maybe you aren’t going to stop in?”  
“I said that I hadn’t thought about it.”  
“Think about it,” Sheriff said with a tone that didn’t invite disagreement. Derek wondered how a child like Stiles could ever misbehave if his father was capable of that tone. Derek’s hands tightened on the steering wheel.  
“I don’t think it would be appropriate-”  
“Whatever inner turmoil you can’t seem to put behind you,” Sheriff cut in, “maybe do it anyway, huh? Just for the holidays. My boy is a wreck.” He took his hands off the car and walked back to his. Derek waited patiently, expecting him to come back with a ticket and a summons to court but instead the Sheriff drove away. Derek still did not move. He thought about what the Sheriff had said and coupled it in his mind with Malia’s hard won concern over Stiles. He took his phone out.  
“Is Stiles okay?”  
A quick answer. “No.”  
He put his phone away and drove to Stiles house. He rang the bell several times but there was no answer. Stiles must be out with the pack. He should come back later. Instead he climbed a tree in the back and thought about one of the first times he’d met Stiles. He climbed into his bedroom then, uninvited, and scared of being caught out by the Sheriff. He was a little scared of that now, still.  
There was no one in the room and the window was unlocked. What a stupid kid. But then maybe it was so Malia or Scott could come in easily. There wasn’t a whiff of mountain ash in the room. How had Stiles lived so long? Derek looked under the bed hoping to at least find some weapons; a baseball bat maybe? Instead his eyes landed on a pretty white package wrapped up in perfection. He took it out turning the box over gently in his hands.  
He heard the key turn in the lock and panicked. He couldn’t explain himself being here, uninvited. He dove out the window and onto the roof closing the window behind him. He didn’t leave, realizing he still held the gift in his hands. He had to put it back but Stiles was already coming into his bedroom. Derek sighed and sat down waiting for Stiles to leave again or go to sleep so he could slip the present back under the bed. He heard the clicking and typing of Stiles’ computer for a full thirty minutes and then just scrolling. Derek, curious, looked into the window and saw several of the images on the screen looked familiar. Stiles came away from the computer and sat down on his bed. Derek quietly prayed that he wasn’t about to masturbate. But he heard the sound of weeping and the pictures on the screen registered with him. They were pictures of him. Christmas pictures with his family and a few of him just bundled up for winter.  
Was Stiles crying for him?  
Stiles moved lethargically from the bed to the floor and then under it. Derek cursed under his breath. Maybe he wouldn't notice it missing? But then Derek could smell Stiles grow in despair and he heard him crying even harder. Derek looked down at the gift and finally read the tag.  
With ease he opened the window and stepped inside. It was about time that he came home for Christmas.


End file.
